Melbourne singer/songwriter Dylan Beast unveils his new industrial electronic rock sound with the three-track single How Long out now on Australia’s Clan Analogue label.
Dylan Beast’s sonic style is influenced by electronic rock of the 1990s and 2000s melded with the edge of modern club music styles. His songwriting explores the mental struggles of modern life and the inherent tensions of today’s technologically-mediated existence. Following on from his independently released Black Patches album of 2020, Dylan moves further into electronica with this new release on Clan Analogue.
Through a mix of industrial music, funk guitar, experimental synths and rock vocals, “How Long” talks about the need for people to fake their emotional responses throughout their lives in order to survive the pressures of our society.
“How Long” is backed with two extra tracks which build the intensity further. Perth’s Times of the Sines remix “How Long” for a high energy dancefloor vibe, granulising and resynthesizing the vocals to convey heightened alienation.
The closer track “Still in Quarantine” was created using samples recorded by Dylan in his house during lockdown, capturing the enforced introspection produced during mental and physical confinement.
Track Listing 1. How Long 2. How Long (Times of the Sines Remix) 3. Still in Quarantine
Vocals, guitars, sampling and songwriting by Dylan Scutti Produced by Nick Wilson Mastering by Tom Glover Design by Megan Sanelli Mixing on tracks 1 & 3 by Fred Schilling and Matthew Boyd Track 2 produced by Jason Fewings Vocal recording and production by Hamish Muir, Fred Schilling and Matthew Boyd. Programming on track 1 by Thomas Copeland and Mohit Rao
A statement from Clan Analogue regarding recently decrypted data
On July 25th 2021, Clan Analogue were contacted by an anonymous source asking for assistance in decrypting a unique dataset. The source and their backers were seemingly unable to decrypt it themselves, so came to Clan Analogue for our expertise in both data and music. They were seeking music technicians.
Despite their scepticism, our IT team agreed to look into it, assembling an entirely-airgapped rack server constrained within a Faraday cage to safely examine the data without risk of wider network contamination.
The patterns that emerged did indeed match those of audio encoding frameworks, albeit an ultra-high resolution quantum audio format that we haven’t yet encountered. Furthermore, certain recurring temporal patterning indicated a correlation with music.
At this point, our source stopped communicating, leaving us with a warning that the data could be dangerous. “Yeah, it was pretty weird,” says Clan Analogue Label Manager Nick Wilson. “Possibly they were in fear of some kind of retribution. But we realised this was potentially interesting music. We just needed help to turn it into something we could hear.”
A team of Clan Analogue’s most adaptable and innovative artists were handpicked for the decryption effort. Their mission – to reconstruct these waveforms within the perceivable part of the audible frequency spectrum. These select artists were Chamberz, Tim Marcus Moore, Kable54, Reductionist and GJ Hannah. Each was given a discrete portion of the data to reconstruct as best they could.
Clan Analogue’s IT Manager Duncan Robertson tells us: “The team and I haven’t yet been able to completely decode the data… however we’ve partially decrypted it into quite a listenable format. I think of it as a four-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, extremely detailed but perhaps impossible to completely solve. If you squint your eyes, it’s actually quite beautiful.”
One other potentially significant piece of information emerged from the decryption process. Initially discarded as noise, it was realised that a piece of corrupt tri-code was actually some kind of metadata stamping algorithm. After applying several Fourier transform equations, the name Future Security Agency became apparent, along with an image. Possibly this is a key to the data’s original source.
In the interests of transparency, Clan Analogue have elected to make these Partial Decryptions available to our listeners via our Bandcamp page. We are sure you will join us in thanking Chamberz, Tim Marcus Moore, Kable54, Reductionist and GJ Hannah in their unparalleled efforts to make this audio perceivable to you.
Please note that we have been warned of potential danger arising from this data. Proceed at your own risk.
Many questions, however, remain:
What does ‘Future Security Agency’ mean?
Could the data ever be completely decoded into its purest form?
Why did the source disappear and warn of danger?
Who or what created the original data, and why?
If you have information to offer, please contact us urgently.
Update: after further testing we have made this audio available through additional streaming and download channels.
Decryption List: Decryption 1: tūūvv t l reconstructed by Chamberz Decryption 2: ganrdo l reconstructed by Tim Marcus Moore Decryption 3: lifea new l reconstructed by Kable54 Decryption 4: head rigdt l reconstructed by Reductionist Decryption 5: blonli08i1 l reconstructed by GJ Hannah
Clan Analogue are celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2022, with events organised for the Melbourne Fringe Festival in October and some great new releases scheduled for later in the year.
For those not in the know, Clan Analogue is a collective of artists focused on electronic music, sound art and associated art forms such as DJing and video art. The collective formed in 1992 in Sydney, by artists motivated by lack of support for live electronic music in the city’s then rock-oriented live music culture. The DIY ethos of an artist-run collective allowed members to pool resources and develop a range of projects, including live events and music releases in diverse areas of electronic music and art. From Sydney, Clan Analogue spread its branches to other cities throughout Australia as the 1990s progressed. Clan Analogue artists are now active in electronic music scenes all over the globe.
There are so many highpoints in Clan Analogue’s history that it is difficult to know where to start. The Clan Analogue Live at the Goethe Institut improvised music and video performance from 1994, released on VHS cassette and now part of the permanent collection at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum? The Intone: Voice Abstractions compilation, exploring experimental processing of the human voice, shortlisted for the Australian Art Music Award for Excellent in Experimental Music in 2015? Underground electronic hits by Disco Stu and B(if)tek from the late 90s and early 2000s, which were amongst Triple-J’s most-requested songs of the era? Michael Mildren’s 12-hour non-stop live performance at Bar 303 in 2016’s Melbourne Fringe? Or the 2014 Gear Shiftseries of monthly electronic music jam sessions at Loop in Melbourne’s CBD, with dozens of participating artists over the course of the year? Maybe 2020’s Lockdown Drone Livestreamed via Twitch, with eight artists collaborating on an epic improvised drone set from home studios in Melbourne, Sydney and Canada? Or one of countless other highlights? Let the fans and music historians debate!
For some historical background on Clan Analogue check out The Early Years and The Middle Years for what went down in the 1990s and early 2000s. We will be updating the historical record with more details as we continue through this epochal year. Stay tuned!
Back by popular demand, black Clan Analogue t-shirts are on sale again.
Featuring the modern Clan Analogue floppydisc logo designed by Shaw Cunningham, these t-shirts look super-cool whether you’re hanging at the club, café or studio. Available in S, M, L, XL or XXL sizes.
From 1990s teenage record store junkie to regular DJ at warehouse parties and clubs, Ming One has been a dedicated stalwart of Melbourne’s techno scene over the last two decades. After contributions to the recent Analogue Redux and Mobile Strategies compilations, Ming Onehas now produced his first artist release on the Clan Analogue label – the Addiction EP.
With six tracks and three remixes, Addiction celebrates all things techno – a musical style which has provided constant inspiration to artists throughout Clan Analogue’s history as Australia’s most legendary electronic music collective. Ming One unleashes his addictive personality on the styles heard pounding from Melbourne soundsystems over the years in a beat-driven journey across the techno soundscape.
Addiction opens with the melodic and EDM-inspired “Out of CPU”, merging into a progressive techno remix by Ollie Lee, another illustrious presence in Melbourne’s techno scene. “Segment” gives us stripped-back minimal techno before Addiction moves into techno breakbeat with “Aesia Break”. “Transition” explores a tech-trance direction, then “The Bells” takes us into the terrain of IDM-influenced sound. Perth’s Times of the Sines provides an electro breakbeat remix while “Galaga” is an acid techno monster, upping the adrenaline as the EP moves to a climax and concludes with a frenetic glitch-inspired remix by Melbourne breakcore hacker Aday.
Addiction has been forged in the fires of Melbourne techno. Bring on the rave wherever and whenever you party. Enjoy the sounds of Addiction.
Buy CD direct from Clan Analogue:
Addiction is available from Clan Analogue in streaming, download and limited edition CD formats.
Track Listing 1. Out of CPU 2. Out of CPU (Ollie Lee’s DSP UpMix) 3. Segment 4. Aesia Break 5. Transition 6. The Bells 7. The Bells (Times of the Sines Remix) 8. Galaga 9. Segment (Aday Remix)
Drones can represent those aspects of existence that seem too large or abstract to fully comprehend. Drone music gives a sense of both stasis and evolution. It provides a space for contemplation, enables a moment of oneness with the universe.
Over the last year Clan Analogue’s artists have looked within to find renewed sonic purpose. The result is Distance: Sounds for an Empty Space: ten drone compositions blending noise and meditation in equal measure.
Each artist provides their own unique sounds for an empty space. Sectoral’s epic modular synth perambulation is an inner journey through imagined empty streets in our cities. iubar project explores empathy with harsh ambience; Jennifer Lea’s contribution is a sonic blanket in a field. Nicole Skeltys creates a soundscape to accompany a monologue for a dying financial system. Michael Mildren builds on the epic synth drones of early 70s German electronic pioneers.
The sounds explored on Distance range from field recordings, to analogue synthesizers, ipad digitisation to modded antique computer soundcards.
City Frequenciessample and rework the noises cluttering cities in frequency ranges beyond our hearing. Zogam experiments with time-stretched guitar drones while WiLL-i-ROMS rewires the soundcards from early 80s arcade games to improvise layers of digital noise. Kazumichi Grime allows unconstrained pure oscillator tones and white noise hisses to build up into a wall of distortion and conflicting harmonics.
All the Clan Analogue artists contributing to Distance were encouraged to work free of any constraints of time or format. The result is the legendary Australian electronic music collective’s most abstract and expansive music yet.
Distance will be available on all major music streaming platforms. A limited edition cassette set with drone-friendly tape hiss is available now from Bandcamp.
Clan
Analogue presents Mobile Strategies:
Battery-Powered Sonics
Clan Analogue’s new compilation album Mobile Strategies: Battery-Powered Sonics is a survey of international mobile music making. Whether using cheap portable synths, boutique miniature noise-making gadgets or apps on the phone or tablet, making mobile electronic music is expanding the possibilities of music creation and performance, turning the train ride into a production session, turning the local park into a studio.
Mobile Strategies includes contributions from music producers located on 3 continents and using a broad-range of mobile setups. The album’s 19 tracks include contributions from Tame Impala’s drummer Barbagallo, Germany’s prominent mobile music proponent Perplex On and the Melbourne-based KOshowKO who has pioneered venue-specific live audience sampling with the use of iPads.
A growing trend among the community of music producers is a return to the tactile experience of music creation tools and a focus on hardware that reduces the reliance on desktop systems. The different feel of mobile technologies impact upon the way producers choose to engage with particular formats. Portable technologies empower producers to redefine their methods of music creation in the contemporary digital space.
The mobile technologies used on the album range from the vintage TB 303, TR 606 and Casio SK-1 instruments used by Australian electronic act Rantzen & Spinoglio, through to a Gameboy Micro running custom software used by chr15m + Fenris to the latest invention by Teenage Engineering, their OP-Z sequencer, utilised by Perplex On in a nature-inspired, glitchy and bass heavy track produced during a hike in the Bavarian countryside.
The album is available on all major music streaming platforms. There is also a special Bandcamp edition of the album, featuring a digital booklet detailing used equipment as well as the creative process behind each track. Customers who purchase the album on Bandcamp will also access a special folder with 6 bonus tracks not available elsewhere.
Michael Mildren launches the third Process album: Free Electronic
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Melbourne electronic music virtuoso Michael Mildren releases the third in his epic Process series of mini-albums, with Process 3: Free Electronic. Free Electronic follows on from Process 1: Studies in Kraft, where Michael recreated the music of Kraftwerk, and Process 2: Post-Kraft, where Michael applied the lessons of Kraftwerk’s production methodology to his own original work. Whereas Process 1 and Process 2 releases were created within tightly-specified musical parameters, with Process 3: Free Electronic, Michael explores a free-form improvisational aesthetic, largely discarding drum machines and utilising his live improvisational skills to create a selection of extended freeform pieces of atmospheric and kaleidoscopic nature.
Process 3: Free Electronic aims to reconcile two seemingly opposed ideas – complete creative freedom in the moment versus the machinelike nature of electronic music technology. To achieve this, Michael drew inspiration from many sources. In the 1960s, free jazz artists such as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane aimed to jettison restrictive musical structures and express themselves directly from the subconscious. In the early 1970s German electronic artists such as Tangerine Dream and Cluster experimented with early sequencers to develop a “motorik” style, where the rhythmic momentum was driven by arpeggiated synth patterns rather than conventional drumbeats. And more recently, Michael Mildren performed an epic 12-hour improvised set in the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival entitled Music Non-Stop where he was able to explore this freeform approach to electronic music performance.
To create Process 3 Michael utilised his extensive collection of classic electronic instruments, ranging from new Arturia synths to rare vintage items like the Farfisa String Orchestra, Roland SH1000 and Korg Poly-800. The results are a stunning collection of extended electronic pieces that are evocative, meditative and suggestive of an undefined narrative yet to be written. Michael’s experience with electronic music goes back over several decades, his virtuosity allowing him to draw inspiration directly from his machines without the interruption of conscious thought – the ideal of Free Electronic.
After Kill Climate Deniers comes The Bolted Report
“Ah, Canberra. Plenty of bong for your buck. Drug-addled politicians. Drugged kids reading ‘Kill Climate Deniers’. This is lower than the original town of Acton, sunk beneath the lake this last century.”
To commemorate the successful season of the Kill Climate Deniers theatrical production at Griffin Theatre in 2018, Clan Analogue are pleased to release the new Special Edition of Ingall and Finnigan’s EP The Bolted Report. Along with the original version of ‘Bolted’ (in both extended album version and radio edit form) comes four remixes of ‘Bolted’ exploring the philosophy of Bolt and his followers through the prism of a range of electronic and dance music styles, from classic late-80s techno to the hippest bounce sounds to leftfield experimental dronescapes.
When Andrew Bolt heard that some lucrative arts funding was going towards a possibly subversive theatre show called Kill Climate Deniers, telling the story of an explosive attack on Parliament House by a group of eco-terrorists, he wasted no time in unleashing his blog readership to vent their vitriol. Reuben Ingall and David Finnigan took the assorted ensuing rantings and incorporated them into the single ‘Bolted’ from their concept album Kill Climate Deniers, released in 2016 by Clan Analogue.
Following on from the album’s release Clan Analogue are pleased to follow up with Ingall and Finnigan’s new EP The Bolted Report. Along with the original version of ‘Bolted’ (in both extended album version and radio edit form) comes four remixes of ‘Bolted’ exploring the philosophy of Bolt and his followers through the prism of a range of electronic and dance music styles, from classic late-80s techno to modern bounce.
When EMF mainman James Atkin heard that Kill Climate Deniers was soundtracked by classic dancefloor bangers from the late-80s and early-90s he jumped on board with full house piano riffs blazing to provide his ‘Unbelievable’ remix.
Wade Clarke, the genius behind Aeriae, provides a hyperkinetic IDM mix under his new side project alias Profound Actor.
Electronica despot Future Conduits cracks open Bolt’s skull with his FUKD & BOMBD mix, sliding 90’s drug hysteria into KCD’s modern climate concerns.
Reuben Ingall gets bouncy as Dead DJ Joke with his tangential revisit.
Iubar Project stretch and mangle the blustering verbiage of Bolt and his acolytes in a sonic attempt to explore their innermost thought processes.
And Clan Analogue luminary Nicole Skeltys, formerly of B(if)tek, and her collaborator Robin Hemmings give us a new take on the Kill Climate Deniers album track ‘Tumblr Dot Com’. The original being far too catchy to improve on electronically, they went for a live reinterpretation, throwing in pathos, angst and howling harmonica.
The lyrics for ‘Bolted’ are derived from Andrew Bolt’s published writing on Kill Climate Deniers, and from the comments of his blog readership: “The Left is the natural home of the modern totalitarian – and of all those who feel entitled by their superior morality to act as savages.”
Visit http://killclimatedeniers.com for more information about Reuben Ingall and David Finnigan’s multimedia project Kill Climate Deniers. The Kill Climate Deniers album and the new Bolted Report EP are available through Clan Analogue at www.clananalogue.org
Every now and again a Clan Analogue artist presents a Spotify playlist highlighting influences, inspirations, obscurities and anything else interesting in the world of electronic music.
Here Melbourne’s synth virtuoso Michael Mildren presents a playlist of his pick of the best covers of Kraftwerk songs. There have been many attempts to cover the work of German electronic pioneers, however Michael Mildren is in a unique position to assess the quality of all the efforts so far. In 2017 he released the first of his Process series of albums – Process 1: Studies in Kraft. This release was the the product of Michael’s intense study of the classic 1970s work of Kraftwerk, resulting in his recreation of 11 of their tracks with exacting sound design and 70s electronic music performance practice. And let’s not forget that he performed the whole set live with vintage gear in show Men/Machine in the Melbourne Fringe.
So, what are the best versions of Kraftwerk’s songs around, according to Michael?
Señor Coconut – Showroom Dummies
I first heard this when I was playing a piano-bar gig at Claypots Bar in St Kilda. I had a Saturday residency for 3½ years and this was my song of choice to play on the iMac playlist when I finished at midnight. I think it captures the spirit of Kraftwerk minimilism very cleverly.
Eric Wøllo – In the Hall of Mirrors
This is a nice hypnotic piece, again, faithful to Kraftwerk. Their music is perfect for acoustic instruments, and gives even classical musicians something to work with. I’d like to see a film that used this as its soundtrack.
Balenescu Quartet – Computer Love
Sounds like Steve Reich at first, as it should, then turns a bit twee, but still worth a listen. A full orchestra version could be nice for this classic love/pop song.
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Hall of Mirrors
A bit of New Wave nostalgia. Maybe skip if you don’t enjoy the aesthetic…
Michael Mildren – Computer World
One of my favourite songs of Kraftwerk, and one that I had fun rendering. The piano line is played on my old monophonic Roland SH1000 and I used the French version of Texas Instruments Language Tutor, which I got from Palm Beach Queensland, via eBay.
Yoshihiro Hayashi – It’s More Fun to Compute
Nice sounds in this, it moves along nicely.
8-bit Arcade – Franz Schubert
In 1983, I walked through a games arcade recording the incredible collage of sounds on a walkman. I’ve always loved the directness of this computer generated music. 20 years later, my son Max was making chip-tunes with his Gameboy.
Snakefinger – The Model
If it’s good enough for Snakefinger, it’s good enough for me. I bought his solo album on cassette in 1982. Demented Hawaiian holiday music.
Michael Mildren – Neon Lights
Another song I used to play sometimes on piano at piano bar, this was the first song I rendered for my Kraftwerk collection. The manually played harpsichord vamp was made on an old Italian Elgam Montreal Electric Piano (now defunct). Other equipment on this track: Roland SVC350 vocoder, EM101, SH1000, Korg MS20, Arturia MicroBrute.
Kraftwerk – Ohm Sweet Ohm
At this point I’m thinking we need to hear some actual Kraftwerk, for reference. The best instrumental they did (almost). Very catchy and meditative. Another should-be soundtrack theme.
Bubblyfish – It’s More Fun to Compute
Nice to hear how other musicians tackle Kraftwerk music. This is kind of cool.
David E. Sugar – Radioactivity
Okay, nice cheap-bit sounds, nothing like the original but good muzak anyway.
Hebert Weixelbaum – Tanzmusik
Here’s a nice short doco on youtube that features this song at the end
Kraftwerk – Franz Schubert/ Europe Endless
Maybe I could have a small solar-powered sound system built into my gravestone with this on endless loop….just quietly.
Michael Mildren will be playing at Clan Analogue’s Analogue Processes on Saturday the 22nd of September at Swamplands in Thornbury as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
